City, suburbs, or countryside? Americans’ ideal places to live [OC]

So, those in an urban setting want to live in an urban setting. THose in suburbia think suburbia is ideal, and those in rural parts think that rural is best.

OK, got it.

It’d be helpful to also show what percentage of the general pop lives in cities, suburbs, and rural areas.

It’s very scary how many Americans fantasize about living in the country away from their fellow countrymen. This nation also can’t afford to continue subsidizing the rural lifestyle as it is.

I’m grouping it by city, suburb or rural/country side for simplicity. A little surprised that even then rural/country wins it but I suppose if I could maintain my current income then I would prefer that as well.

Pretty interesting considering cities are the most population dense locations in the country

I would assume this is driven by the proportion of people living Rural that aren’t interest in city living , whereas there is prob higher portion of people who city live but like the idea of more space that rural/suburb offers

I have done both. completely depends on speed of lifestyle , what you want at your disposal to occupy your time and money, and ofc affordability

The first half of this data strikes me as one of those “is water actually wet” studies. The kind we do to avoid the pitfalls of assuming something is obvious, even when you know the likely outcome (in this case, “people tend to go live where they’d like to live.”)

The second half strikes me as more interesting. Growing up in an urban environment doesn’t seem to predict any outcome: a full third of people who grew up in cities would prefer a rural environment. By contrast, growing up in a rural environment produces a strong preference for it, with a full two thirds wanting to stay rural, and 85% wanting nothing bigger than a small town.

I’d be really curious to understand why a rural environment seems to have so much stronger an influence on childhood experience. (Or if it’s just a quirk of the distribution of respondents: Did a lot more urban folks answer than rural?)

This totally depends on how much money you make. NYC is amazing if you are rich, but it’s a struggle if you aren’t.

IMHO, every person should be “required” to spend 5-10 years in an urban, suburban, and rural place each at least once. I bet we would understand each other politically a lot better if we had to be in each other’s shoes for a good amount of time.

I’ve lived in every one of these, they all have positives and negatives but those will vary by person. I’m guessing a lot of those urban people that dream of living in a small town/rural area would get bored out of their minds.

I went

House in small town -> rural -> house in small town -> house in a different small town -> house in a medium sized town -> suburban neighborhood -> (moved to another country) dowtown city apartment -> suburban neighborhood

Interesting data. My personal anecdote: I’ve lived in all 3 rural, suburb and urban. Life is so much easier and more interesting in a city. You couldn’t drag me back to the boondocks. I will never again live anywhere I can’t walk to dozens of amenities like shopping, movie theater, bookstore, café, library, restaurant, gym, doctors, dentist, car mechanic.

For some reason, reddit experts conclusions are the complete opposite of the data

This data makes me think that once wfh becomes the norm, a lot of Americans are gonna move to countryside seeing lack of local jobs in rural areas becomes less of a factor

Don’t overlook zoning laws, building codes, access to utilities, and township boards themselves as barriers to rural life. People like the idea of it until they realize the deck is totally stacked against people moving away from urban/suburban areas back into the country.

“Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.”

I lived in 5 different cities until I was 26. Granted, in both places where I lived, the population density in general is so high, you’re not really too far away from stuff.

Is this self reported living area or is it using zip code info to determine it? People routinely misreport whether or not they live in urban/suburban/rural areas.

Like 8% of Americans actually live in rural communities. People have no clue what it’s actually like.

I wonder how this data corresponds to the studies like the one City Nerd talked about where there’s a lot of people that talk about the concept of rural cosplay some people seem to enjoy.

Hey, only 16% of Americans live in rural areas, but 40% think they should.

What are you waiting for, the rest of you? Give up your restaurants, easy access to stuff, and things to do, and get back out there to rural America!!!

Oof, Reddit doesn’t like this one. Equal comments and upvotes. Funny, when a poll we don’t like shows up we come up with all sorts of reasons why it’s not representative, and the reverse is rarely true.

I’d be curious to see “Rural Area” and “Countryside” split out instead of combined.

Not seeing the category for “living at sea level”

I live in a city neighborhood that was originally built as a streetcar suburb and it’s wonderful. It’s a really good mix of standalone homes/homes converted into apartments and apartment buildings with great shops and restaurants within a short walk of the entire neighborhood. There’s a city pool in a big park overlooking the neighborhood. And I’m so close to commercial districts that I can walk to them in about 25/30 minutes if I really wanted to.

I guess it depends on what people consider by “rural,” “suburban,” and “urban.”

“Urban” in a city of 50,000 is going to be vastly different than “urban” in a city of 1,000,000. I like “city living” in medium sized-cities (like 100k-500k) but not highly populated like LA or congested like NYC or SF.

Same with suburban and rural. I like suburbs in medium-sized cities that are easily driveable and near to a city and its downtown. A suburb where it feels like you are just living in a sea of cookie cutter developments far from a city center nearby, I hate.